460  Some  Alkaloidal  Assays.  {Arocfober,Pimni 
the  immiscible  liquids  by  each  other  completely  avoided.  By  means 
of  funnel  No.  2  the  concentration  of  an  ethereal  liquid  can  be 
accomplished  by  placing  the  funnel  in  warm  water  and  connecting 
the  long  goose  neck  with  a  condenser  and  thus  the  transferring  of 
the  liquid  from  a  distilling  flask  to  separatory  funnel  avoided.1 
ACONITE  ROOT. 
Put  10  grammes  aconite  root  (No.  60  powder)  into  the  percolator 
shaking-tube,  and  50  c.c.  of  a  mixture  of  three  volumes  ether  and 
one  volume  chloroform  and  5  c.c.  of  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of 
sodium  carbonate.  After  stoppering  the  tube  shake  the  whole 
thoroughly  during  one  hour,  then  percolate  with  the  same  immis- 
cible solvent  to  exhaustion.  In  order  to  obtain  a  perfectly  clear 
liquid  free  from  any  trace  of  fixed  alkali  pass  the  stop  cock  of  the 
percolator  through  a  very  wide  cork  placed  over  a  small  funnel 
which  contains  a  small  plain  double  filter  of  ordinary  filter  paper 
having  four  folds  on  each  side.  The  cork  serves  as  a  cover  to  pre- 
vent evaporation.  The  percolate  can  be  received  into  any  vessel  or 
better  into  special  separatory  funnel  No.  2.  The  percolate  is  then 
concentrated  from  warm  water  to  about  one-half  of  the  original 
volume  to  remove  traces  of  ammonia,  and  when  cold  diluted  again 
with  ether  to  approximately  the  original  volume.  The  ethereal 
liquid  is  now  shaken  out  once  with  excess  of  standard  acid  and  then 
twice  washed  with  water.  The  excess  of  acid  is  then  titrated  in  the 
usual  way.    As  it  is  always  advisable  to  control  the  acidimetric 
A  somewhat  similar  funnel  was  devised  by  H.  Bremer. 
